Friday, March 14, 2008

Knitter's Delight

The absolute highlight of my recent work jaunt to Seattle was the evening I spent with Wendee, the color maven/yarn genius extraordinaire behind Hazelknits. She was kind enough to pick me up and off we went, first to the Ballard neighborhood for delectable Thai food at Thaiku. After great conversation and a fantastic meal, she took me to see her yarn empire. One word: WOWZA!!

It was so exciting to see her layout and the way that she creates her fabulous yarn. You know the fumes that hit you when you open a bag of fresh yarn? That was was what greeted us upon entry--I love that smell! She showed me step by step how she does what she does and was very patient with the many questions I had. So many questions...I learned so much about both the creative and the business side of her craft and feel so lucky that she was willing to share what she does with me. Her new colors are 'gorge' as a certain someone would say, and you can find them at Woolgirl as well as at her Etsy shop. Rumor has it that there will be a big update on Sat. 3/15. ;)

As if the generosity and kindness described above weren't enough, Wendee also surprised me with a very unexpected parcel in the mail today, can you take a guess what was in it?'Peach Sanguine'--one of her new colors, can you stand it? Is this not the most heavenly color of peach you've ever seen? I had been fiendishly coveting it the entire time of my visit, so receiving it gave me a special jolt. One thing about the Hazelknits solids that I so appreciate is the depth of color to them. I believe I once heard a Stepford Wife cum Make-up Pusher at a Bobbi Brown counter call it 'tone on tone'--an expression that I thought seemed ridiculous at the time but that I now completely get. Peach Sanguine. *sigh*

Seeing all of the Hazelknits yarn has rekindled my interest in knitting a certain garment...you know, the one that is made in pairs on little bamboo skewers?

The sock mojo, she is BACK.

The first thing I did upon return was to wind my skein of 'Sailor's Delight' into a yarn cake and get cracking. I performed a little experiment, one which yielded very useful data.On the right you see 56 sts on a size 2 needle, and on the left you have 52 sts on a size 1 needle. Isn't the difference striking? I prefer the result on the smaller needle, so I am going with it. Thank you so much Wendee for bringing this sock knitter back from the precipice of sock despair and helping me find my way back to the happy sock knitting place!

Oh, what fun! As I was reading, I felt as though I were right there with you. That peachy color is so pretty, and I just love the colors in your sock experiment too. Um, almost makes me want to, um, make socks again. Almost...

Hooray!! Wendee told me the two of you met up and that she had *so much* fun hanging with you! Isn't she the sweetest? I'm just a wee bit envious that you've met her and I still haven't ;) I just bought some Sanguine Peach in a sock kit for baby socks. Sooooo pretty! Enjoy!